RCEP comes into effect + New Year's Day, what sparks are rubbed out? Chinese sellers target Japanese and Korean "New Year's Eve business"

"We are very concerned about the landing of RCEP, before the Japanese tariffs were too high for small and micro cross-border e-commerce, some people can only give up." Now we hope to take the opportunity of RCEP to open the Japanese market in time for the New Year's season. David Li, general manager of Guangzhou Yanxun Trading, said.

Today (1st), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) officially came into effect, and a large number of Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies such as Yanxun are aiming at the east wind of RCEP and confidently bringing more "Chinese intelligent manufacturing" to markets such as Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

More Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies are targeting the RCEP market

"This is the most difficult 'double dan' in history, and it is also the best 'double dan'." Rising raw material prices, international logistics difficulties, high European taxes... Having overcome so many difficulties, our export orders are still growing twice! "The New Year's Day and Christmas holidays in overseas markets are superimposed, and Hu Pengcheng, founder of Fanhai in Anhui Province, led a team to transform the supply chain efficiency of downstream factories with technology in order to enhance the production capacity of the "Shuangdan" business. In the process of cooperation with downstream suppliers, enterprises continue to optimize production efficiency by identifying barcodes, card readers, sorting systems, etc., and the newly launched ERP system can increase production capacity by six or seven times.

Although the global "New Year's Eve business" is booming, in the interview many companies reflected that due to the impact of the epidemic, the profits of cross-border e-commerce in the main European and American markets have been diluted a lot, "The days when novices can also lie down and make money have passed, and it is good to be able to level the level without loss." ”

The price of bulk raw materials at home and abroad has risen, and the international logistics freight rate has surged by more than 10 times. Some companies said that the original freight of a container to the United States was almost $4,000, and now it has increased tenfold and it is possible that no one will unload the goods.

"We not only want to seize the New Year business opportunity, but also want to eat the RCEP dividend." After the RCEP takes effect, a series of actions such as zero tariffs and large markets can help us solve practical problems for cross-border e-commerce. David Li told reporters that the tariff cost of the Japanese market in the past two years is too high, sometimes the tax is even higher than the cost of logistics plus products, "our gross profit margin in Japan in 2019 can reach 20%, only about 6% last year", high tariffs make many Chinese cross-border e-commerce sellers want to give up, if the RCEP can gradually achieve zero tariffs between member states, it will be conducive to expanding the Japanese and South Korean markets, which is undoubtedly good news for sellers.

Hu Pengcheng also said: "We want to do business in RCEP countries this year, including sharing the ERP supply chain transformation method that has run through in China and transforming local foreign trade factories." As a typical example of the upgrade from "micro multinational enterprises" to "specialized special new enterprises", Fanhai currently has 1 million "iron powder" in the world, relying on the huge supply chain of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, the number of their new SKUs (smallest inventory units) is over 10,000, which allows overseas consumers to have endless trend choices, and at the same time, the self-developed SaaS system can be quickly shipped 24 to 48 hours after overseas consumers customize orders.

The RCEP Cross-Border Payments Index rose 2 times in 4 years

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first 11 months of 2021, the total import and export value of China's trade in goods was 35.39 trillion yuan, an increase of 22% year-on-year, exceeding the level of the whole year of 2020. One end connects overseas consumers online, the other end connects flexible supply chains offline, and at the same time uses digital technology to achieve "zero threshold" to sell globally, such cross-border e-commerce represents a new possibility for China's exports. Behind the steady stream of foreign trade orders they have connected, Both Chinese exports and Chinese manufacturing are undergoing a digital transformation from production to operation.

Recently, the "RCEP Regional Digital Trade Cross-border Payment Service Index" jointly launched by Zhejiang University and Ant Research Institute shows that despite the "smoke" of the global trade war and the ravages of the global epidemic, from the first quarter of 2018 to the present, the RCEP regional cross-border financial services still show strong resilience, with the total index rising nearly 2 times in 4 years and the annualized growth rate reaching 18.55%.

In terms of size in particular, the index grew by 53.5% in 2020 and 14.7% in 2021, maintaining double-digit growth in both years. Among them, the payment activity measured by the number of payments is far ahead of the growth of sellers and the growth of transaction amounts, and in the third quarter of 2021, it increased by 25.6% year-on-year, a record high. Professor Ben Shenglin, dean of the International United Business School of Zhejiang University, explained: "This shows that small and medium-sized sellers are increasing, and orders are fragmented and small, which confirms the rise of asian micro-multinational enterprises. ”

However, the Index also found that foreign trade enterprises in the RCEP region, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, still have many problems and difficulties in carrying out digital docking, digital ordering, digital customs clearance, digital delivery, digital settlement and other aspects of foreign trade, and integrated cross-border payment solutions need to be optimized and improved. Therefore, payment institutions need to continuously improve digital trade supporting facilities and expand the capital settlement channels of cross-border enterprises to better serve the major scenarios of cross-border e-commerce, so as to improve the adaptability of small and medium-sized enterprises in the RCEP region to digital trade.

"What you want most about cross-border e-commerce is 'the goods can be sold, and the money can be collected'." Hu Pengcheng said frankly that if you do cross-border e-commerce, capital compliance is the most important, and it is necessary to ensure that cross-border collections can be safely and stably delivered to the account, so that the cash flow of enterprises can be smooth and stress-free. "In the annual war of the global holiday economy, the digital finance industry should use technology to escort them to alleviate the financial pressure that they have concentrated on the demand for stockpiling and delivery." Fan Jian, head of the China business of cross-border collection service platform Wanlihui, said that he believes that with the landing of the RCEP agreement, whether it is a "micro-multinational enterprise" or a "specialized new enterprise", China's cross-border e-commerce industry will usher in a greater outlet.